If Nicola Cortese turned up tomoz with a new investor, a big bag of cash, would you welcome it, even if it meant loading Les Reed, Ralph Krueger and Gao onto a rocket and firing it at the moon? #saintsfc

Premier League side Southampton’s new owner funded his £200M ($257.5M) takeover of the club “with a loan from a Chinese government-backed bank in Hong Kong,” people familiar with the matter said, according to BLOOMBERG. A Chinese investor group led by Lander Sports Development Chair Gao Jisheng “settled the bulk of the acquisition cost with a loan from Hong Kong’s Nanyang Commercial Bank Ltd.,” according to the sources. The consortium reportedly purchased an 80% stake in Southampton in a deal completed this week. The borrowing is “backed by some of Gao’s assets outside of China, including those in the former Portuguese colony of Macau.” Nanyang Commercial Bank was bought last year by China Cinda Asset Management Co., a financial group whose “biggest shareholder is the Chinese central government.” By obtaining offshore financing in Hong Kong, Gao “skirted a Chinese regulatory clampdown on companies buying trophy assets overseas” like sports teams, film studios and luxury hotels. Lander Sports, which has a market value of $1.4B in Shenzhen, said earlier this year that it agreed to buy control of Southampton from team owner Katharina Liebherr. Gao “later decided to pursue the transaction in a personal capacity,” after the listed company said that it terminated its involvement due to “changes in domestic policies.” DealGlobe acted as financial adviser to the Gao family in the transaction. A representative for Gao declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Nanyang Commercial Bank said she could not “immediately comment” (BLOOMBERG, 8/17).

There are equally numerous unfounded allegations around that allegedly Gao/Lander are in default on the loan. Not being fluent in Mandarin and unwilling to rely on google translate it is better not to post some of those to save Pap from a Libel Suit

Mind you Pap in a Libel Suit may look sartorially preferable to Bletch in a shirt